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TODAY'S ISSUE
College to offer Maymester course-tour on civil rights
Special to GwinnettForum.com

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., April 2, 2004 -- The University of Georgia will offer a new speech communications "Maymester" course focusing on the rhetoric of the civil rights movement at the Gwinnett University Center in Lawrenceville, where UGA offers bachelor's and master's degree programs.

The course, "Case Studies in Public Communication," includes a four-day tour of many of the historic Civil Rights Trail locations in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee where struggles for integration took place. The trip is timed to coincide with the 43rd anniversary of the Freedom Rides and the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

The class meets May 12-June 3, with the Civil Rights Trail tour scheduled May 21-24. Students enrolled in the course will travel more than 1,500 miles on a rolling classroom tour to Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Ala.; Meridian, Philadelphia and Jackson, Miss.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Atlanta. Along the way, several foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement will speak to the students.

Rita Van Zant, speech communication instructor with UGA at Gwinnett, is responsible for the creation of the course. "I have always wanted to combine the study of rhetoric with the actual historic environment in which the oratory took place," she said. "This trip should help students gain a better understanding of the power of persuasive rhetoric in a social movement and how this knowledge can inspire and dare us to be bold in confronting the challenges of today."

The class will meet Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. at the Gwinnett University Center. It is open to students enrolled in UGA programs at Gwinnett, as well as students enrolled on the Athens campus. Students will pay tuition and fees for the May session plus an additional fee for the four-day, three-night tour. On the trip, students will be responsible for the cost of their lunch and dinner and any incidental personal expenses.

"I am extremely excited about participating in a class that is so hands-on," said Erin Kelly, a UGA at Gwinnett student who plans to take the May term class. "I look forward to traveling with Georgia students to the actual locations where major events of the Civil Rights Movement occurred."

Reginald L. Moss, an education program specialist with UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at Gwinnett, will co-host the trip. "UGA students may use this class to meet both their cultural diversity and multicultural course requirements," said Moss, "but they should enroll early because class size is limited."

A few spaces may be available for non-students who are interested in participating in the tour, according to Moss. For more information, contact Van Zant at UGARVZ@aol.com or 678-407-4589) or Moss rlmoss@franklin.uga.edu or 678-407-5239).

ELLIOTT BRACK
County ban on smoking to be tested in vote on April 13
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

APRIL 2, 2004 -- As Gwinnett County begins a ban on smoking in public places, there's a major move by one large entertainment venue to gain an exception to this ban.

Wild Bill's, near Gwinnett Place, which has an occupancy permit for 4,800 persons, is trying to pressure the county commission on allowing smoking at its combination bar-restaurant-entertainment site. Wild Bill's is no mom-and-pop bar. It does $171,100 in mixed drinks sales each month. That's $2 million a year!

A public hearing on the exemption of smoking ban and vote by the Gwinnett County Commission will come April 13. This vote will have far-reaching impact on almost everyone in Gwinnett.

Wild Bill's seeks this exemption to put itself above what the county has already passed, a smoking ban. And consider: if one restaurant can come up with a reason it should get an exemption, other establishments will also seek an exception. And if one is allowed an exemption, what's fair? All should be allowed. The long-range effect will be, not to kill, but to gut the no-smoking sanction.

In Georgia, as in the nation, only 22-23 percent of the people smoke. You would think that a smart politician would recognize what the numbers say here. It means that a great majority of the people understand the dangers of smoking, and would agree with commissioners who seek to have a ban on smoking in public places.

When the county adopted the smoking ban, the vote was 4-0, with Commissioner Marsha Neaton abstaining. Now apparently Commission Kevin Kenerly has had a change of heart, as he totes the water, you might say, for Wild Bill's in seeking to get a vote on the exemption. You wonder why Mr. Kenerly has suddenly changed his mind on the smoking ban.

Ms. Neaton, meanwhile, has also somewhat changed her position, from one of abstaining, to now writing a letter to Amy Wlodarczyk of Wild Bill's, stating "support of the establishment of an in-house permanent smoking area at Wild Bill's."

That leaves Chairman Wayne Hill Commissioners Bert Nasuti and John Dunn, who previously supported the ban.

Up for election this year are three commission posts, that of the Mr. Hill, the chairman, and Mr. Dunn and Ms. Neaton. Already announced as challenging Mr. Hill for the chairman's position is Ms. Neaton.

With Ms. Neaton now supporting a change in the no-smoking ban, you wonder if she realized the number of people who do not smoke when she made this decision.

After all, could the 77-78 per cent of Gwinnett voters who do not smoke determine who they will vote for in the chairman's race on the outcome of the smoking question? If so, with most people not smokers, could this point to a re-election of Mr. Hill, if enough non-smokers realize that Ms. Neaton participated in a charge to torpedo the smoking ban, and importantly, "for one special restaurant?"

During a political year, each time office holders vote, they are risking that one group or another will take exception to their position. More than in off-election years, the pressures mount on those already in office.

Let your voice be heard to your district commissioner about the smoking exemption that the commissions will consider on April 13. Gwinnett is far too progressive to take a step back when it comes to a ban on smoking. Let the county ban on smoking in public places be given a chance to work!

The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today's featured sponsor is Discover Mills, located at Interstate 85 between Georgia Highway 120 and Sugarloaf Parkway. Octavio Ortiz is the general manager at Discover Mills. Opening on Wednesday, December 17 is the AMC's 18-screen movie theatres. Enjoy the luxury seating while watching first run movies at Discover Mills. For a list of movies to be playing go to the web site at www.amc.com.

FEEDBACK
4/2: Better if we called a technical foul, on both sides of game

Watching NCAA basketball last weekend, I thought, "It's too bad we don't have'instant replay' in politics. Four different views from four different cameras, some zoomed in, some giving the panoramic view, each displaying for public perusal what happened.

We used to have an instant replay of sorts, a more-often-than-not objective press that spent more time examining the plays themselves instead of filming and reporting verbatim the daily protestations of innocence and blame. We used to have radio and television shows for whom "balance" had nothing to do with opinions, shows that defined balance less as a volatile tug of war and more as a tightrope walker would. We used to enjoy watching the sheer talent, the charisma of the players, the well-oiled machinations of a good debate, the certitude of graceful sportsmanship. Today we see nothing but trash talk.

The President was AWOL 40 years ago. Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill are just disgruntled employees. It's not our fault -- the British gave us bad intelligence. If Bush the Elder had gone the distance, we wouldn't be here. Clinton's the one who dropped the ball...he should've taken the handoff from the Sudanese. Bush Jr. stole the election. Don't listen to Hillary, she's an evil liberal. If you don't support the President, you're a traitor. My brand of marriage is better than your brand, and yours should be banned. Trash talk, nothing but trash talk.

Halftime was over, and the game started again, and my attention was once again drawn to the thrill of March Madness and basketball. After the game, as I listened to the self-effacing, excited kids who'd won but knew how much they still have to learn, I had a second thought.

We don't need instant replay in politics...Leading America isn't a game, and our votes are not trophies. We are the referees of our lives, and we, at least, some of us, are grown up enough to take responsibility for ourselves. It's that other madness that has to stop. It's time we called a technical foul..on both sides...and ejected a few players the next time we have the chance.

-- Vally Sharp, Duluth

NEWS
4/2: Walton EMC sends four Gwinnett students to Washington

Jennifer Garrison of Bishop, Julia Schuchard of Lawrenceville, Nick Vaca of Stone Mountain and Karen Ward of Grayson are the 40th group of students to win a spot on Walton Electric Membership Corporation's Washington Youth Tour.

The 2004 tour takes place this June and makes stops in Atlanta and Washington. Dozens of local high school students applied to go through the test and interview process used to determine the winners.

Garrison, Schuchard, Vaca and Ward will be part of a larger delegation of winners from EMCs across Georgia that will spend time in Atlanta and Washington. Once in Washington, the Georgia group will meet with other Youth Tour delegates sent by electric cooperatives from several states.

Besides leadership development sessions, students will have lunch with Georgia's congressional delegation, see famous landmarks and historically significant institutions and experience government in action. Social activities include a riverboat dance on the Potomac and a stop at the ESPN Zone.

Both high school sophomore and juniors who live or attend school in Walton EMC's service area are eligible for the trip. Walton EMC is a consumer-owned electric company with 105,000 accounts in ten Northeast Georgia counties between Atlanta and Athens.

The Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia are the most physically spectacular or unusual sites in the state. These landscape formations resulted from powerful forces of nature during geologic time-probably more than 60,000,000 years ago-and, with the exception of Providence Canyon, predate human activity in Georgia.

The first list of natural wonders was compiled by the state librarian, Ella May Thornton, in response to an inquiry by a journalist. Her list, which appeared in the Atlanta Georgian magazine on December 26, 1926, included Stone Mountain, Okefenokee Swamp, Amicalola Falls, Tallulah Gorge, Warm Springs, Jekyll Island Forest, and the marble vein in Longswamp Valley in Pickens County.

Thornton acknowledged that some items on her list were arguable and "there are a number of others of equal rank." Two that she selected and that the Atlanta Georgian described-Jekyll Island Forest ("wild life flourishes there almost as it did before the white men came") and marble deposits in Pickens County ("the largest single vein of marble known to the world")-have not made recent lists.

More: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Destinations.jsp.

To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Home.jsp.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
What is important, after all, is the direction

"The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving."

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, via Bob Wilkerson of Norcross.

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